Using scanning confocal microscopy, we measure the backscattered second harmonic signal generated by a 100 fs laser in rat-tail tendon collagen. Damage to the sample is avoided by using a continuous scanning technique, rather than measuring the signal at discrete points. The second harmonic signal varies by about a factor of 2 across a single cross section of the rat-tail tendon fascicle. The signal intensity depends both on the collagen organization and the backscattering efficiency. This implies that we cannot use intensity measurements alone to characterize collagen structure. However, we can infer structural information from the polarization dependence of the second harmonic signal. Axial and transverse scans for different linear polarization angles of the input beam show that second harmonic generation (SHG) in the rat-tail tendon depends strongly on the polarization of the input laser beam. We develop an analytical model for the SHG as a function of the polarization angle in the rat-tail tendon. We apply this model in determining the orientation of collagen fibrils in the fascicle and the ratio ? between the two independent elements of the second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor. There is a good fit between our model and the measured data.

Ablation characteristics of ultrashort laser pulses were investigated for pulse durations in the range of 130 fs–10 ps. Tissue samples used in the study were dental hard tissue (dentin) and water. We observed differences in ablation crater morphology for craters generated with pulse durations in the 130 fs–1 ps and the 5 ps–10 ps range. For the water experiment, the surface ablation and subsequent propagation of stress waves were monitored using Mach–Zehnder interferometry. For 130 fs–1 ps, energy is deposited on the surface while for longer pulses the beam penetrates into the sample. Both studies indicate that a transition occurs between 1 and 5 ps.

We have developed high-speed and high-resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomography at 1.3 µm using an InGaAs line-scan camera and a broadband light source with the bandwidth of 170 nm that produces a theoretical axial resolution of 4.4 µm in air. We compared axial resolutions from point spread functions (PSFs) and depth ranges while changing the full spectral bandwidth detected by the camera and describing the optimization process for the axial resolution, the depth range, and the sensitivity for SD-OCT system. We found that SD-OCT at 1.3 µm cannot satisfy the conditions both below the axial resolution of 5 µm and above the depth range of 2 mm because of the restricted pixel number of the line-scan camera. To scan a large depth range, the axial resolution has to be sacrificed. In addition, the sensitivity rolls off slowly as a function of the depth if a large depth range is scanned. On the other hand, if the axial resolution needs to be close to the theoretical one, the depth range becomes limited and the sensitivity decays quickly. Since we have to maintain a reasonable depth range of 2.0 mm, we chose the spectrum full bandwidth of 214 nm captured by the detector to balance the axial resolution of 8.2 µm. In this setting, the sensitivity of our OCT system was measured at 107.1 dB. Theoretical and experimental results are compared and presented in this paper.

We propose high-speed spectral domain polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (SD-PS-OCT) using a single camera and a $1×2$ optical switch at the $1.3-μm$ region. The PS-low coherence interferometer used in the system is constructed using free-space optics. The reflected horizontal and vertical polarization light rays are delivered via an optical switch to a single spectrometer by turns. Therefore, our system costs less to build than those that use dual spectrometers, and the processes of timing and triggering are simpler from the viewpoints of both hardware and software. Our SD-PS-OCT has a sensitivity of $101.5dB$, an axial resolution of $8.2μm$, and an acquisition speed of 23,496 A-scans per second. We obtain the intensity, phase retardation, and fast axis orientation images of a rat tail tendon ex vivo.

In the present study, we monitored hemodynamic responses in rat brains during transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Seven rats received transcranial anodal stimulation with 200 μA direct current (DC) on their right barrel cortex for 10 min. The concentration changes of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) were continuously monitored during stimulation (10 min) and after stimulation (20 min). The trend of hemodynamic response changes was modeled using linear regression, and the relationship between incremental and decremental rates of oxy-Hb was investigated by correlation analysis. Our results showed that the oxy-Hb concentration was almost linearly increased and decreased during and after stimulation, respectively. In addition, a significant negative correlation (p < 0.05) was found between the rate of increase of oxy-Hb during stimulation and the rate of decrease of oxy-Hb after stimulation, indicating that the recovery time after tDCS may not depend on the total amount of hemodynamic changes in the stimulated brain area. Our results also demonstrated considerable individual variability in the rate of change of hemodynamic responses even with the same direct current dose to identical brain regions. This suggests that individual differences in tDCS after-effects may originate from intrinsic differences in the speed of DC stimulation “uptake” rather than differences in the total capacity of DC uptake, and thus the stimulation parameters may need to be customized for each individual in order to maximize tDCS after-effects.